Chapter 47 The boom of detective dramas
People in this era are not ashamed of the promotion of political payment, but are proud of it.
Despite the prosperity of literature in this era, in fact not many people read books and newspapers. In addition to students and teachers, there are also staff from various departments and units, plus some workers who love literature.
This group of people does not even make up one percent of the country’s total population.
It was these millions of people that created the magnificent literary craze in the 1980s.
After college students graduate, they are also assigned to various departments and units, so the political payers of this period have high prestige in the literary world. "Renming Daily" spoke out for "The Song Dynasty Proposes Punishers", so no one dared to make trouble.
Professor Xia and others are so angry that their livers hurt when they see the commentary article "The Great Song Dynasty Proposes Punishers" in the newspaper every day. Every time they get angry, they hate Liu Hongmin even more.
They lay dormant, waiting for Liu Hongmin's heat to cool down before looking for opportunities to deal with him.
Peking University Publishing House sent Li Huanfang to find Liu Hongmin, hoping to obtain the distribution rights of "The Punisher of the Song Dynasty".
Liu Hongmin did not agree immediately. Even if "The Song Dynasty's Proposal of Criminal Officials" was published, he would have to wait for the April issue of "Beijing Literature and Art" to be published.
Otherwise, if the book goes on the market first, who else will buy "Beijing Literature and Art"?
When the sales of "Beijing Literature and Art" decline, even if Zhou Yanru doesn't trouble him, Zhang Dening will come to attack him. Liu Hongmin didn't want to mess with Zha Jianying, his best friend.
Li Huanfang heard Liu Hongmin's concerns and immediately said: "Don't worry, even if we want to publish "The Punisher of the Song Dynasty" first, we can't do it. The current printing task has been scheduled until May Day. If you jump in line, the goods will not be available until the end of May at the earliest.”
The sales cycle of magazines is generally the first three months, with the largest sales in the first month, and the second two months mainly to clear inventory and buy more. One book saves the cost of one book.
After hearing this, Liu Hongmin felt relieved. However, he still wrote this clause in the contract.
"Brother Li, let's be villains first and then gentlemen. Don't blame me for being unkind."
Li Huanfang said helplessly: "Okay, how else can I lie to you?"< br>
Liu Hongmin also didn’t explain that we can’t wait until we are deceived before doing this kind of thing, we must nip it in the bud.
Li Huanfang complained a few words, signed a contract with Liu Hongmin, and returned to the publishing house with the manuscript.
Liu Hongmin's manuscripts for "Beijing Literature and Art" and Beijing University Press were all photocopied. Although the price of photocopying is a bit expensive, Liu Hongmin is not short of money.
"Beijing Literature and Art" gave me a royalties of 8.5 yuan per 1,000 words, and Beijing University Publishing House directly gave me a royalties of 10 yuan per 1,000 words.
"The Punishment Officer of the Song Dynasty" has a total of more than 550,000 words, and the total remuneration of the two companies is more than 10,000 yuan. However, Liu Hongmin still felt that he was at a loss. He wanted to get royalties more than royalties.
According to the sales volume of "Jingcheng Literature and Art", the sales volume of "The Criminal Officer of the Song Dynasty" will almost exceed one million copies.
Based on a 10% royalty rate, one million copies of Liu Hongmin’s book would earn at least two or three hundred thousand. According to the royalties, he could only get more than 5,000 yuan at most, which was a huge difference.
Fortunately, Liu Hongmin doesn’t expect to make big money in the country. After all, there is a lot of waste waiting to be done in the country. At this stage, it is already remarkable that a novel can earn 10,000 yuan.
The country is in urgent need of foreign exchange, and those who have the ability should make money from foreigners.
Liu Hongmin has finished writing the six parts of Shaobao 2 and notified the Xiangjiang authorities in a letter. I believe it won’t be long before Ming Pao, RTV, and Sanlian Publishing House will send people over to talk to Liu Hongmin about publication, distribution, and adaptation.
After the April issue of "Beijing Literature and Art" was published, it once again caused a craze. The second half of "The Punisher of the Song Dynasty" is more exciting and arouses more heated discussions. The craze in March has not subsided, and the craze in April has struck again. All departments and units published articles as if they were making a vow, for fear of falling behind.
The sales volume of "Beijing Literature and Art" increased again, exceeding 800,000 copies.
This made Liu Hongmin very unhappy. This was not what he wanted to see, and such sales were not what he wanted.
Zha Jianying knew that Liu Hongmin was unhappy, so she took him to watch a movie.
On May 11, a detective movie was released, triggering a movie-watching craze.
"405 Murder" is adapted from a real case and is my country's first detective film.
The theater they went to in the morning actually bought evening tickets, which were even more popular than the "Ao Lei Yilan" they watched during the National Day last year.
The two did not wait any longer. They played in a nearby park until the evening, and then returned to the theater an hour early.
Except for the limitations of the times, this movie is perfect in other aspects. Almost flawless plot setting and superb suspense creation. The plot development is both unexpected and reasonable, and the control of details and rhythm is very strong.
Even Liu Hongmin, a time traveler from the new century, watched it with gusto, let alone people of this era.
The popularity of "405 Murder" immediately attracted new attention in society. However, this focus did not make "The Punishment of the Song Dynasty" cool down, but made "The Punishment of the Song Dynasty" even more popular.
A detective novel and a detective movie have caused a craze, causing many people to call this year the year of the detective.
Liu Hongmin didn't know if it was the detective year. What he knows is that many TV stations have contacted him and want to buy the rights to adapt "The Punisher of the Song Dynasty". Film studios set their sights on Shaobao and wanted to make a series of movies.
This made Liu Hongmin dumbfounded. He originally thought that the adaptation rights of Shaobao would be successful outside the wall and fragrant within the wall. As a result, after Xiangjiang became a hit, there was no news at all in China.
He was about to give up, but suddenly a "405 Murder Case" came out, which directly triggered the craze of detective dramas.
No less than five television stations want to buy the adaptation rights of "The Criminal of the Song Dynasty", and no less than three film studios want to buy the adaptation rights of Shaobao.
Liu Hongmin believes that domestic film and television productions in this era will not follow the trend. After all, it is a planned economy. TV stations and film studios only need to complete their tasks.
Now it seems that they will follow suit, but not in an obvious way. After all, it is a national unit, and they have to have some respect, and they will not copy everything
What they follow is a genre. As long as a genre becomes popular, they will go back to make films of the same type.
Scar literature became very popular, so they adapted it in large numbers. Now that detective dramas are so popular, they are thinking of adapting detective dramas.
It’s just that Liu Hongmin is very puzzled. It’s okay for you to shoot "The Criminal Officer of the Song Dynasty". After all, you are responding to the call of the "Renming Daily" above.
But Liu Hongmin couldn't understand the photo of Shaobao. Given the current situation, is it really appropriate to take photos of Shaobao?
However, Liu Hongmin did not refuse even if someone sent money. There is no such thing as hoarding copyrights these days, and there is not much money available for adaptations.
"The Criminal Officer of the Song Dynasty", Liu Hongmin received an adaptation fee of 3,000 yuan and sold it to Zhongtai, and Shaobao received a 500 yuan adaptation fee and sold it to Beijing Film Studio.
(End of this chapter)